What’s Happening with All the Oil at Gatwick?

Forget Saudi Arabia, Iran and the USA oil plains. There’s a new prospective reserve on the cards and it just happens to be one of the highest profile cities on the planet. Several months ago UK Oil and Gas Investments (UKOG) revealed that it had discovered an estimated 100 billion barrels of oil beneath the Weald Basin Horse Hill-1 oil field located near Gatwick Airport. This immediately drove up the price of its shares however just one week later, UKOG reissued a statement saying that they may have overestimated initial figures. As expected, stock prices then dropped.

Fluctuating estimates

Since the initial announcement from UKOG there have been a series of estimates on just how lucrative the Horse Hill-1 oil field could be. Houston based oil services company Schlumberger is the latest group to put forward its guess of what lies beneath, with a pair of consultants publishing a figure of 271.4 million barrels of oil per square mile. Oil reservoir consultant Nutech had slightly less optimistic calculations and estimated the total amount of oil at around 9.25 billion barrels. Oil investment venture group Doriemus is the latest company to carry out an assessment, with figures that soar above the initial UKOG estimate released back in April. While the estimates vary greatly one thing is for certain. Should Horse Hill find would be one of the biggest onshore oil fields ever found in Britain.

Optimism from executives

David Lenigas, CEO of UKOG has confirmed that the company is thrilled with the figures and has a positive outlook for the future. “The Weald Basin now has significant value to the UK,” he posted on Twitter. “Lots of work still to do though.” Donald Strang, Doriemus chairman was a little subtler in his sanguinity, stating “Nutech’s latest report is a significant step towards understanding the resource potential of the Weald licences, being the first independent semi-regional quantification of OIP [oil in place] over the area that incorporates the findings from the HH-1 well,” he said. At present the Weald Basin drilling areas are covered by two licenses. Both the PEDL137 and PEDL246 warrants are co-held by Horse Hill Developments Ltd with a 65% share, and Magellan Petroleum Corp with a 35% slice.

Opposition from environmentalists

While the figures are impressive the majority of the Horse Hill oil supply appears to be sealed within shale. This would make it both expensive and time consuming to extract, and has also hurled the field onto the radars of environmentalists who are concerned UKOG may resort to hydraulic fracking or fracturing extraction. Not to mention increased air pollution in London, a city that’s already plagued with fumes.

For more information about this fascinating discovery, read How Much Gatwick Oil Is There? or Gatwick Has Struck Black Gold. But Can We Mine It?